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Somewhere in Time (1980)

MCA DVD (region 1)

d. Jeannot Szwarc; pr. Stephen Deutsch, Ray Stark; scr. Richard Matheson; novel. Richard Matheson; ph. Isidore Mankofsky; m. John Barry; ed. Jeff Gourson; cast. Christopher Reeve, Jane Seymour, Christopher Plummer, Teresa Wright, William H. Macy (103 mins)

SOMEWHERE IN TIME FACTS: PROMOTION - Playing nicely on the time travel enigma, the film's tagline was the subtle "Some day in the past, he will find her." nicely suggesting a love beyond the constraints of time (read more); FILM TALES - Mackinac Island, Michigan, the site of the Grand Hotel, did not allow cars and so special permission had to be obtained to allow the vehicles necessary for filming; Jane Seymour suggested to director Jeannot Szwarc to approach John Barry for the score but Szwarc felt Barry was beyond the film's budget until Seymour approached him as a friend and Barry loved the projects, agreeing to score it within the film's budget; always the gentleman, when the local town arranged a screening of Reeve's hit Superman and the sound went out during projection, Reeve stood up and recited all the lines; of all the actresses who auditioned for the lead role, Jane Seymour was the only one who replied "no" when asked if she had ever been in love; SPONSOR DETAILS: This review of Somewhere in Time is sponsored by Inkstone Digital - the latest ebooks for as low as $8.95 with new titles added weekly (read more); Scrolling News Ticker by Mioplanet;

The Fans That Turned a Forgotten Romance into an Enduring Classic

an extract from Robert Cettl's book Film Tales: Movie Trivia in the Age of DVD (on sale now in print and soon in e-book)

Director Jeannot Szwarc came late into the production of Jaws 2 and virtually saved the production for the studio, turning it into a huge commercial success. In return, Szwarc was allowed to make another film as a favour, a film that he felt personally committed to: an unusual time travel romance called Somewhere in Time, adapted from a novel by Richard Matheson, a former collaborator of cult producer Roger Corman and the inspiration for The Omega Man and I Am Legend. However, the studio was not impressed by the promise of this film and shortly into it cut the planned budget virtually in half. Although this necessitated much change in shooting style and design, the director persisted, making his romantic movie the way he felt it should be made. However, all involved were disappointed to find that the film received an ill-advised release process and proved a flop: few people went to see it and critics loathed it. Nevertheless it did sell to cable television where it screened regularly over the years and was there re-discovered by fans. Some of these fans soon organized their own newsletters, gatherings and even excursions to the hotel around which the film is set. In due course a website dedicated to the film and its following soon emerged.

Somewhere in Time was adapted by author Richard Matheson from his award-winning novel Bid Time Return and as a love story was considered an unusual venture for the man still primarily associated with his work for the original Twilight Zone TV series and the novel I am Legend, previously filmed as The Last Man on Earth and remade as The Omega Man.

Yet, producer Stephen Deutsch was determined to make the film and managed to interest director Jeannot Szwarc, who felt the studio owed him a favor for having stepped in to make Jaws 2 at the last moment. The studio obliged, but had no faith in the unusual project and cut the planned budget virtually in half. Nevertheless, the film was made, released and proved to be a disastrous flop with the public and the critics (many of whom were especially venomous in their response to this tear-jerker). The film quickly disappeared from release until seen by a cable television owner who bought the screening rights. It then steadily developed a loyal audience over many years of such cable screening, this audience expanding further when it was released on home video. One devout fan went so far as to create a club devoted to the movie, now with its own website and newsletters. As beloved as Somewhere in Time has become, it is in part due to the efforts of these determined fans rather than through any real critical re-appraisal (although this may be warranted).

In Somewhere in Time, Christopher Reeve is a playwright, first seen after a successful performance of one of his works. In the midst of the open congratulations, an elderly woman approaches him and gives him a watch, saying only the words “come back to me”.

Reeve is befuddled. Many years later, Reeve is now an established and successful dramatist but one whose personal (romantic) life is in complete disarray. He leaves his home and on impulse stays at a lavish hotel. There, on exhibit, he sees the photograph of a beautiful woman and feels an instant connection to it. He researches and finds that she was an actress in the early years of the 20th Century. He discovers further that shortly before her recent death she was reading a book about time travel. Intrigued by such possibilities, Reeve consults a professor who believes that time travel is possible by a form of self-hypnosis. Reeve then rummages through the hotel records and finds an old hotel registry, which apparently has his signature on it. Reeve returns to his room and seeks to hypnotize himself in the hope of traveling back through time. He actively wills himself back in time and meets the woman in the photograph (Jane Seymour) much to the dismay of her manager (Christopher Plummer). As Reeve and Seymour enter a courtship, Plummer has other plans. But Reeve’s time travel paradox may in itself hold some secrets for him.

Director Szwarc has admitted that he intended this film to be a somewhat old-fashioned romance based on the idea of love at first sight.

Although he succeeds at that, what gives the film added resonance and ambiguity is its conception of Reeve’s character. He is a man on the edge of despair and who interprets what he has heard and seen into a specific destiny – he must go back in time to find his true love. Just as one can accept the romantic passion of this notion (that not even time can separate two lovers who are meant to be together) Szwarc, and especially Matheson, always suggest that this is the onset of a form of psychosis for Reeve. Significantly thus, his journey through time is through act of auto-suggestion. Yet by so believing he has propelled himself into another time he has escaped from the pressures of his life and the subtle transition signifying the time travel can also be taken as a sign of the onset of a perceptual, psychotic break with reality. Thus, the romance that transpires can be interpreted as a genuine time-travel romance or as a psychotic daydream. Either way, the questions remain – what will happen when Reeve returns to the present and will he be able to cope? In this regard the film’s ending is tantalizingly ambiguous, offering equally a beautiful idealization of romantic love and a bleak vision of psychotic despair – of all films; it anticipates the uncut ending of Brazil.

This ambiguity does not undercut the movie’s passion but always qualifies its sense of the precarious balance between romantic idealization and psychotic self-delusion; making the film a fascinating and elegant mediation on love’s lost opportunities given a second chance at fulfillment.

The combination of time-travel hypothesis, romantic period film and psychodrama truly distinguish this movie as there is always the idea that this romantic fantasy is inspired by one man’s increasingly irrational and pathological need to disassociate himself entirely from reality. In both time zones thus, the film explores the human ability to will events into being in the effort to control destiny. Hence the film ultimately explores the rivalry between Reeve and Plummer for their role in (or control of?) Seymour’s fate. Seymour on her part seems almost innocent and easily love-struck, from which Plummer seeks to protect her. In time, the film suggests, it will be she who longs for the second chance. Both Plummer and Reeve have her best interests at heart, they tell themselves, yet the film can but wonder at the tragic mess that Reeve has potentially created. The ultimate question of whether true love has defied all convention or whether it has been an impossible fantasy that has only ruined lives makes the romantic beauty in Somewhere in Time more complex and ambiguous than it seems. It also makes it surprisingly and fleetingly affecting.

He shot the scenes in the present on a different film stock from the scenes in the past and the lighting is subtly more diffuse in the past, giving much of the film a deliberately Impressionistic look. As enticing as this is, the widescreen letterbox transfer is woeful. In a film of deliberate hazing and soft focus gentility, background clarity is necessary and this transfer merely renders it indistinct, grainy and smudged, little better than VHS. It seems after all this time that the studio still has no faith in the movie and only scant concern for the fans. Overall clarity is smeared and the sense of color often muted (although much of this is intended). Nevertheless, the lavish Grand Hotel setting is preserved and the film manages a fine sense of period detail. It also has a solid idea of how the accumulated details in Reeve’s life (past and present) coalesce into his romantic fascination with Seymour and the past – a process akin to the ideas of reference which are so much a part of psychotic delusion. Montage sequences are especially well used and there is a sense of brightness, a delight in the diffuse appearance of natural light and a tender use of reflections in windows, pictures and portraits. The origins of the photograph that bewitches Reeve are most affecting and the recreation of bygone theatre is also historically intriguing.

Sound

The sound transfer is also something of a disappointment in Dolby Digital 2.0 mono only, most lamentable considering the exceptional score by John Barry.

The opening features a nice use of overlapping sounds but a hiss is noticeable in the gentle silences. Aural design is quite low-key and although there is a sense of delicate busyness to the rhythms of hotel life, it makes only for a mild presence. The sound mix too seems almost diffused, but in this case much of its mildness is seemingly due to the transfer limitations. Off-screen sounds (notably horses) still carry through slightly when needed to enhance the period feel. Scenes of self-hypnosis are quite effective, especially in the way Reeve’s desperate voice interacts with his own recorded calm voice played back on his tape recorder – encapsulating the sense of a psychotic split within the character as he wrestles for self-control. The source sounds are moderately engaging to build a sense of time and place, but again the film suffers from the lack of a fully-fleshed out transfer: it is akin to watching the film on television as opposed to home theatre as the mono transfer threatens to mute and nullify the individuality of voices and effects, which often must battle to achieve any presence beyond the functional. It is barely even that, especially when considering that this release is marketed as a Special Collector’s Anniversary DVD Edition.

There is an original trailer (which suggests the escapism) as well as numerous production photographs. There is a text-page section giving some background into the production and novel as well as brief biographies and cursory filmographic highlights. The fold-out booklet offers additional production information. There are also details of a DVD distributor newsletter, and previews for Havana, Out of Africa and Snow Falling on Cedars. Of interest is a brief featurette on the movie’s fan club, INSITE (International Network of Somewhere in Time Enthusiasts). “Back to Somewhere in Time” is a substantive look at the movie, covering its origins, the casting decisions, the way in which the hotel is a character within the film and the important notion of one person being transfixed by the picture of another. It also examines the film’s unusual notion of time travel and how Szwarc was influenced by French Impressionism. Mention is made of the use of different film stocks, on the performed play within the film and on the idea of two men obsessed with the one woman for different reasons. It covers the changes made to the book, Reeve’s affinity for out of body experience, how they managed to get John Barry and why they chose to incorporate music by Rachmaninoff, the film’s poor marketing strategy and its disastrous first cinema release.

In addition is a commentary track by director Szwarc in which he talks of the deliberate use of sound techniques and the self-conscious importance of visual and aural transitions within the film to give it a fluid feel.

He talks of how he was offered the film as a result of his work on Jaws 2, his visual style within the film (in particular of his decision to stress circling dolly shots and his use of “Cathedral lighting” techniques), his casting decisions and how he sought to differentiate the past from the present. Also examined is the approach to visualizing the time travel scenes without conventional special effects and how on paper the notion of time travel by self-hypnosis was thought to strain credibility and thus be the major testing point within the drama. He mentions the changes to the novel, his working with Richard Matheson and the romantic idea of dying of love. He is full of praise for the DVD medium, which he sees as one of the greatest inventions in film history in its ability to bring viewers and films closer together. However, little mention is made of the psychological ambiguity that runs through the movie as Szwarc talks of the importance of love at first sight, his theme of the powerful idealization of love (does this cost Reeve his mind?) and what he feels would be the inappropriateness of sex scenes in such romantic love stories. Finally, mention is made of the film’s reception, its rescue by fans and of Szwarc’s thoughts for a follow-up.